Chibita's Christmas Eve
by Asahina Banana
Summary: Chibita, the oden stall owner is always used to spending weekends holidays, and other publicly celebrated events with the crazy sextuplets of the Matsuno family. However, this year's Christmas Eve might be a little bit different... COMPLETED.


"3...2…1…Yep, they should be here any minute." The 'tiny' owner of a small, yet high-tech oden stall mumbled to himself as he stared at his newly bought table clock.

Sure enough, an orchestra of constant blabbering were soon heard from a few hundred metres away. To that oden stall owner, those were pretty annoyingly familiar voices—which belonged to none other than the obnoxious, unemployed sextuplets of the Matsuno household.

"Oiii, Chibita! Give us some drinks and scoop us all a bit of oden, will 'ya?" The eldest brother, Osomatsu cried out to the owner with a cheerful face.

"Yeah right, as if I will. Pay last month's bill first, you lazy sleazebags!" The owner, Chibita, replied with a sullen look.

Osomatsu then said something that probably he had said at least a hundred times, "Come on, we'll certainly pay back! Right, guys?"

"Yeah, yeah!" The rest, except the fourth brother, Ichimatsu answered enthusiastically in unison.

Chibita was completely aware of the outcome of this conversation, but in the end after a series of further persuasions—he gave in again, like always. After all, the sextuplets were his only companions during these late hours. They were certainly an amusing troupe to befriend with, as long as it didn't concern money and the likes of it.

For almost every Fridays, weekends, as well as public holidays and other publicly celebrated events—this was Chibita's after-hours routine in his mundane stage of adulthood. Being the owner of a pretty unpopular oden stall clearly wasn't going to bring him all the glitz and glamour, but at least it was always quite heart-warming to see his regular customers, the 'eternally in-debt' sextuplets being rowdy as always. Each time they visited, at least one of these brothers had an interesting story to tell after they went tipsy. They vary pretty widely—from completely nonsensical events to tear-jerking experiences. Chibita would always lend his ear for each of their crazy tales, and sometimes even give an advice or two for them.

He had to admit that their company kept him from feeling completely alone in the sea of people who thought of nothing but themselves. It provided a sense of being needed by someone else, which so far nobody had provided since he stepped into the harsh world adulthood. However, the society does not allow him to let that desire surface—and hence, as painful as it was, he had to always keep that part of him hidden from the surface.

A few weeks later, the day that Chibita had always dreaded finally came—Christmas' Eve. Not only it was extremely cold outside and made it even more difficult to keep his homemade oden warm, this almost eternal bachelor was quite irked in the sudden outbreak of couples all around him. Frankly, Chibita was really jealous of them, as he never had any wonderful experiences with a girl. Not even a single confession accepted nor even received.

However, recently he had learned to accept the reality that his bachelor years would be extended, and was somehow content to spend that 'special' day with none other than his most loyal customers. Unfortunately almost all of them had a similar fate to him regarding girls, despite being quite popular when they were much younger. Thus, their Christmas Eves of adulthood would be spent in a sausage-fest environment, filled with drunk talking and crying until the break of dawn.

As pitiful as the 'tradition' may seem, it was one of the little moments of joy in one year that Chibita would look forward to. On the night of the 24th, he would always wear his best outfit to greet this atrocious group of people.

"Okay then… Let's see. I'm done with the oden, I've got a lot of booze here… Yep, this should be enough. And in a few seconds they should be here any moment now…" He said happily, with a huge grin on his face. "Come at me anytime, you crazy sextuplets!"

However…

Tick, tock, tick, tock. 30 minutes had passed and no one showed up. Not even a random drunken salary man or a stray cat in sight.

Tick, tock, tick, tock. Another hour had passed, and yet no single soul was present. Feeling dejected, Chibita hung his head down in disappointment.

 _He thought they would come like usual._

 _He thought the sextuplets were the only ones in the same position at him, and would want to spend an all-bachelor's Christmas Eve again with him._

It did not occur to him that somehow this year, and during the past few days, things might take a different turn. Maybe the idiot, happy-go-lucky Jyushimatsu actually got a girlfriend this time. Or perhaps the ever so sly Todomatsu got a real job and went out to eat in an expensive restaurant with his new co-workers.

"Or maybe… They all just want to leave me…" The bald, young man mumbled—before tears started trickling down his cheeks. Unable to finish his sentence, Chibita found himself sobbing quite badly like never before. He couldn't stand it anymore. After all, what he had always wanted was—

"—… don't want to be…alone…" He said with a crackled voice between his sobbing, and immediately buried his face in his palms afterwards.

"I… don't want to be…alone…" Chibita repeated the sentence countless and countless of times, before all of a sudden, someone called him from above. His stall was located right against a slope, so people usually had to climb down a set of stairs beside the bridge a few steps away in order to get to him.

"Oiii, Chibita! We're here!" Jyushimatsu shouted cheerfully, waving his hands in the air. "Hold on a bit ok, we're coming down soon!"

His words were later followed by Osomatsu yelling, "Chibitaaa! I want some drinks! I'm beat!"

Surprised by the brothers' unexpected appearance, Chibita wiped his tears and looked backwards at the source of the voices. Indeed, he saw everyone walking down towards the stairs in their usual carefree and rowdy manner. Oddly enough, he saw the third brother, Choromatsu with a small box in his hand. Considering that the brothers never brought anything to his stall except for themselves and their almost empty wallets—that minor item was surely something to look out for when they get here.

As everyone scrambled quickly to their seats, Choromatsu carefully laid down the box on the stall's fold-out which served as a dining table as well. Feeling incredibly cautious as to what the contents were, Chibita then asked,

"What is that, Choromatsu? Don't tell me it's not one of your suspicious otaku goods, right?"

"Of course it's not!" Choromatsu cried in embarrassment, before proceeding to carefully opening the small, neatly arranged box. "This is…"

"A cake for you, Chibita!" Todomatsu-san interrupted, with a jolly look on his face.

Chibita gasped in bewilderment and exclaimed, "A…cake?!"

Osomatsu then continued on, "Yeah! Since we've been indebted to you for all these years, we felt that we should actually give you something back. We don't know if you like strawberry shortcake though. Plus, umm… one more thing… about that ridiculous design though…"

The second and the most narcissistic brother, Karamatsu pushed up his vintage trademark sunglasses and said, "I asked the bakery to draw my face on it with glitters all over them. Very artistic, right?"

"Well…" Chibita was too dumbfounded to reply back properly. Strawberry shortcake was indeed one of his favourite desserts, but eat them with someone's face on it is just somewhat a bit too repulsive on it.

"Oh oh yeah! I forgot something important too, Chibita!" Jyushimatsu suddenly exclaimed, waving his arms freely in the air again.

"What is it?"

"Ichimatsu-niisan… Actually queued 3 hours for that cake! So that's why we're late today!"

The sullen-faced, extremely oblivious and eternally bed-haired fourth brother, Ichimatsu clicked his tongue at Jyushimatsu and growled at him. He then replied, "Ssh, I told you not to tell him about that, you stupid idiot!"

"Oops, sowwy." His brother of completely opposite nature cheekily covered his mouth and apologized.

Chibita was actually quite taken aback from hearing that. The person that looked like he cared the least actually made an effort to get him a cake during Christmas Eve! It is extremely difficult to get a normal cake even if you want to order a fortnight before, because most bakeries would have their hands full with lots and lots of orders during this time period. Especially if you try to buy a cake during the 24th, the queues would be extremely long and there is a low chance that you can actually get a cake.

Feeling touched inside, Chibita then looked at Ichimatsu directly and asked, "Is this true, Ichimatsu? Did you really queue for the cake?"

"Yeah, he really did!" Choromatsu interrupted, showing a thumbs up. "I was the one who ordered it by phone, but since the 5 of us were busy at that time, Ichimatsu then volunteered to get the cake for us. Karamatsu showed up later on spot too though apparently, although for the sole purpose of customizing the cake with his design."

"But it's beautiful, right?" Karamatsu commented, unwilling to give up in convincing that his perception of beauty was close to even being socially acceptable.

Chibita led out a chuckle and replied, "Haha, I can't really comment on that."

"See, everybody now thinks that design is ugly. Jyushimatsu, you think so too, right?" Todomatsu asked with a frown, as he shook his head.

"No! I think it's very very ugly!"

"Pfft… Ahahaha!" Everyone except Karamatsu burst out laughing in unison, somehow warming up the place even without the help of a portable heater. In the midst of that shared joyfulness, Chibita suddenly stopped and stared at everyone silently. He then proceeded to silence everyone with a cough, before having six puzzled looks directed at him.

"What is it Chibita?" Osomatsu asked.

Chibita scratched the back of his head out of embarrassment, before he had the courage to say, "Everyone, I really want to thank you all for bringing this cake and for coming here. I hate to admit it, but it makes me very happy. So… since I'm in a good mood… Tonight, everything here is my treat! Eat up and drink lots, you sextuplets!"

"Ooo!" The brothers cheered and raised their fists in the air together, before proceeding to help themselves with cheap booze and lukewarm oden.

It was very cold outside, but to Chibita—it was the warmest night he had ever experienced in his life.

-end-

 _Author's notes_

Well… a 500-word daily minimum ended up to be almost 2000 words here orz. It's 12:38 am, and I'm really hungry right now… Could really have some warm oden. Anyways, I know the Osomatsu-san fandom is quite small here and I'm pretty sure a very, very small amount of people pays attention to Chibita… But he's actually my favourite character in the show! I find him extremely cute and amazing in some ways too… Considering that his oden stall has wifi in it. Omg.

But that asides, it's almost New Year's! Dang, this year sure flies by fast. I hope everyone has a nice 2015, and let's pray for a better 2016!

I'm really sleepy now… so good night _(:3


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